Cambridge Conference to Discuss Plans for an Experimental School

A high school without walls-using the urban environment of Boston and Cambridge as its campus-will be the topic for a conference in Cambridge this afternoon.

The conference, chaired by Massachusetts Education Commissioner Neil Sullivan, will discuss C.I.T.Y. (Community Interaction Through Youth) Campus, which plans to enroll 50 to 100 students in a full accredited high school program.

CITY campus director William Kennedy said he hopes the school can open by February if state accreditation and government funding has come through by that time.

CITY campus will not have a building of its own. Instead, classes will meet in all parts of Boston and Cambridge-factories, universities, government offices, laboratories and museums. Special instructors will include engineers, businessmen and other professionals in various fields. Because of low capital expenditures, the school will cost less per student than the Boston Public Schools.

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Students for the school will be chosen from those who apply. Once admitted, they will discuss with their teachers what kind of curriculum they want. The teachers will inform them of what they need to know to get a diploma.

Kennedy said CITY campus should satisfy the need for a school that appeals to the type of student who is looking for an alternative to the traditional public school. "The need is great because an awful lot of kids are dropping out," Kennedy said.

Alfred E. Vellucci, Mayor of Cambridge, and Frank Friscoli, acting superintendent of the Cambridge Public Schools, both approve of the project. Vellucci, who dropped out of schoolafter seventh grade, said he never could live in a school with walls.

The conference will be held at 2:30 p.m. today at the Hotel Continental on Garden Street. The host will be Mayor Vellucci, the chairman Neil Sullivan, Massachusetts Education Commissioner.

CITY Campus is modeled after a similar school founded in 1969 in Philadelphia called the "Parkway Program."